Thursday, July 14, 2016

Provisional RKS Developer Diary: Passing the Torch...

My old Compaq Presario CQ50 and
my new Asus Rogue GL752VW.

Hello, everyone!

It's been pretty eventful on our end since the last RKS Developer Diary. Our release candidate for Rosenkreuzstilette has been submitted, and the DRM-free version of the game is ready to go. Our publisher, Active Gaming Media, wishes to release the game simultaneously on Steam and on their Playism portal. I can appreciate why they'd want to launch both versions of the game at the same time and fully support their decision; I ask that you be patient while they get everything sorted out with WOMI and Valve on their end.

Shortly after the release candidate was finalized, the time had finally come for the Compaq Presario I've been using for the past seven years to retire. As you may recall, I've been having problems with this machine since last November, when its hard drive failed and delayed the project. I've since replaced the hard drive, but a new problem arose that I hadn't anticipated. Whether due to the new hard drive's specs or the laptop's age, its cooling system couldn't keep up with my typical workload. It's a good thing I've developed a habit over the years of hitting Ctrl+S every time I make a significant change to my work; the emergency shutdown would kick in every time the machine's internal temperature hit 145° Fahrenheit, forcibly terminating everything until the machine had sufficiently cooled down. I could pop the laptop in the freezer for ten minutes to quickly cool it down and resume my work after a short break (and did so on many an occasion), but the condensation and the effect the rapid temperature change had on the laptop's power supply port placed a hard cap on just how many times I could do that without causing permanent damage to the motherboard. So, sensing that the end was nigh, I gathered up all of the change in my tip drawer and used that as the budget for my new laptop. Good thing I'd been saving my spare change for the past 2 years!

With some help from my ex-girlfriend's father (I'm on very good terms with my ex and her family) and a lot of extra legwork, I tracked down a worthy investment. The time between my order being finalized at NCIX and Purolator showing up at my door was less than 48 hours (yowza!). Too bad I was at work at the time and had to trek to the middle of nowhere to pick up my parcel on my next day off. To that end, I am immensely grateful that my weekends are Monday and Tuesday -- I wouldn't have been able to pass by during their opening hours if I had the standard Saturday / Sunday weekend.

Having finally had a chance to play around with my new toy (or, as my ex's dad put it, "feel her up"), I'm very pleased with my new Asus ROG ("Rogue") GL752VW. It came preloaded with Windows 10 Home, and I'm quite happy to see that our release candidate of RKS worked straight out of the box without the need for any additional tweaks.

Speaking of RKS: today marks the seventh anniversary of Rosenkreuzstilette's English language debut. Yes, our English fan translation was released today seven years ago. It would have been nice to have the official English release coincide with this milestone; it's a bit of a shame that things didn't quite work out that way. Oh well...

It'll take a little while for me to migrate my stuff over from the Presario to the new Rogue. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions you wish about the upcoming English release. There's still a bit more material for new Developer Diary entries, so let me know what you'd like us to shine a spotlight on next. For the sake of keeping a few things a surprise, I won't be showcasing all of the Game Over references (though I wouldn't mind doing a text-only version with just a handful of screenshots to illustrate the differences between our fan-translated versions and our official ones) and I won't be going over references in the English script itself. However, I can go over the German in the spoken dialogue, the subtle changes we've made to some of the stage backgrounds, look at the names of the midbosses and minor enemies, as well as a few other things that aren't coming to mind at the moment. If there's anything you're curious about, leave a comment and let me know what you're interested in hearing about.

We haven't signed an NDA, but we're honor-bound to keep certain details under wraps. That said, the release date and pricing are to be determined; I can't tell you what I don't know.

The original Rosenkreuzstilette will be released on its own, with Freudenstachel following later on. I've been focusing on the first game specifically because I was showcasing our current progress -- we only just received the source code for Freudenstachel earlier this week.

Glad to hear it! Though I don't have that passion to get through it all over again, instead it states that I will have a "new" and "clean" vision toward how you English planner can improve the game (I'm a fan of the game only because the non-stop rush step of Grolla mode)

Hopefully, the new English script (polished by yours truly) and the retouched graphics will be enough incentive for you to give the game another go. I've personally hidden a few Easter Eggs in the game system in addition to those already in the original. Some are so subtle that you might not notice they're there, and some are quite obvious. For instance, Grollschwert now has a completion bonus!

Achievements? Yep, designed by WOMI himself. Cloud? What for? The game doesn't use saves; it uses passwords (and I've tweaked the password system to be player-friendly enough that saves would be redundant). Trading cards? I honestly have no idea - that's WOMI & AGM's call.

That's what we're hoping for. The initial sales will fund the things we had originally intended to fund via Kickstarter. Provided the game does well, that is (there's no point dubbing the game if no one bought it subbed).

Welcome!

Where in the world are you? I'm glad you asked! Welcome to Schwer and Schwer Alike, the official English development blog for Rosenkreuzstilette -Blades of the Rose Cross-. "RKS" is a series of indie sidescrollers created by [erka:es] as a loving tribute to old-school gaming. The series caters to the loyal-yet-neglected Megaman fanbase and fills the void created by the cancellation of Megaman Universe and Megaman Legends 3.

Originally a dynamic duo, [erka:es] is now a one-man show run by WOMI, the series' lead artist and character designer. Should you feel so inclined, you can download free trial versions of Rosenkreuzstilette and its sequel, Rosenkreuzstilette Freudenstachel, from the developer's official website. If you like what you see, you can purchase both games, in English, via Steam and Playism .